Economy

China rules out full commercialization of culture sector

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-01 10:44
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BEIJING - A senior publicity official of the Communist Part of China (CPC) Monday denied that China would fully commercialize its cultural sector in ongoing reforms.

"It's entirely wrong to think that cultural sector reform equals commercializing the sector," Sun Zhijun, vice head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at a press briefing on the reform.

The phrase "commercializing the cultural sector" had never appeared in the speeches of state leaders or policy documents on cultural sector reform, he said in response to a question on whether the reform is the same as commercializing the cultural sector.

The government launched the cultural sector reform in 2002 in a bid to raise the country's soft power.

A main plank of the reform is to transform numerous publicly-funded organizations, such as State-owned performing arts troupes and publishing houses, into enterprises that assume sole responsibility for their profits or losses.

But public undertakings such as libraries and museums would remain State-funded government institutions.

Sun said the basic premise for cultural sector reform was the distinction between cultural undertakings and cultural industries.

The task of the cultural undertakings was to satisfy to public demand for cultural services and the government would take the leading role in providing those services, Sun said.

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At the briefing, Jiang Jianguo, vice director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said China would allow "orderly participation" of private publishing enterprises in the market.

He did not provide further details on which new parts of the market would open to private publishing enterprises.

According to a government press release issued Monday, about 90 percent of former State-funded publishing houses, film production companies, and TV series production companies have been turned to enterprises.

Already, private and foreign enterprises had entered printing, copying, distribution, and hardware production of new media in the market.

In the market for publication distribution, those enterprises had 80 percent of the market, said the press release.

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